Glenn Blakeney, PLP MP for Devonshire North Central:

Preventative crime measures, better housing maintenance and listening to the concerns of constituents are central to Glenn Blakeney's role as an MP.

The veteran broadcaster has pushed for the installation of CCTV, street lighting and road resurfacing in his constituency and is also concerned about activities for young people.

Mr. Blakeney's PLP profile reads: "He is committed to working for special youth uplift programmes in his constituency, and towards viable means of constructing affordable housing for first time homeowners.

"Glenn is supportive of PLP Government-funded initiatives such as the hugely successful CAP programme, which is designed to improve neighbourhood environments."

Mr. Blakeney grew up in Southampton West near Rose Hill and attended Southampton Glebe Primary School and the Berkeley Institute.

He studied broadcasting and journalism in New York but has also worked in insurance, as a claims adjuster for BF&M and underwriter claims adjuster at the former Harnett and Richardson.

Before being elected as an MP in 2003, he was the marketing manager for TeleBermuda International.

Mr. Blakeney is currently president and managing director of Inter-Island Communications Ltd, which owns HOTT 107.5 FM and MAGIC 102.7 FM. He says radio gives many people a voice to express their concerns to the policymakers and wider community.

"My business is a wonderful opportunity to provide an interactive communication for the community at large," he says. "It has allowed us to provide outreach programming, to contact the community with the issues and the solution. It has also helped to enlighten and inform people."

He insists that his stations maintain an objective stance on the Island's politics. "We don't do editorials at the radio station. We don't feel it's necessary for our involvement, and plus I wear a political hat," he says.

"Since the people are encouraged to articulate their views, I feel that's the balance. I feel that presents us as a much fairer representative of the social climate of the day."

Mr. Blakeney lives in Spanish Point, having previously resided in Devonshire North Central in Jubilee Road. He is a family man, having been married for 25 years to Gwen Joell, and has five children and six grandchildren.

Mr. Blakeney is chairman of the Ports Authority Committee, and has previously sat on the Public Accounts Committee and the Works and Engineering Purchasing and Tendering Committee. Although he says he "would not differ on any policy" of his Government, he says he did take a stand when his constituents objected to additional homes being constructed on the Mary Victoria/Alexandra Roads flat tops.

"Myself and Paula Cox (MP for Devonshire North West) appealed to Minister David Burch not to build any new development there on the flat tops, because I knew residents did not want the development to increase housing in the area.

"The strain on the infrastructure such as on sewage would have created more problems than it would have solved at the time, particularly with additional residents in an already densely-populated community. In the end the Minister made a decision favourable to our request."

Among his other achievements over the past four years, Mr. Blakeney lists the resurfacing of roads in Cedar Park Road and a section of Middle Road, plus the installation of street lighting, and new fencing around the Prospect Primary School playing field.

Mr. Blakeney has worked with the BHC and a private firm to install a CCTV camera in the area and plans to install another in Cedar Park Road.

"I am running a pilot initiative to address concerns about suspected untoward activity going on in the Mary Victoria and Cedar Park Road areas of Prospect," he says. "CCTV is a crime preventative measure and would help to cut down on anyone engaging in anti-social behaviour.

"We have now installed a camera on one of the BHC buildings and I have been very pleased with the feedback from residents. I think most would agree with the edict that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and it seems to have solved the problem."

Asked what makes a good MP, he says: "Always being available to listen to constituents, and being proactive in addressing as immediately as possible, any action, in order to get the most speedy resolve.

"From what we've been getting on the doorstep, people are concerned about untoward activities such as drugs and crime, which seem to be getting worse," Mr. Blakeney says. "That is one of the reasons for the CCTV surveillance.

"The vision I have in serving the community is from a team player perspective, serving the Government on a platform on which we have been elected. But once elected it doesn't make a difference what side of the political divide the voter is on, you are their representative. If someone has a legitimate concern they will get the same level of representation from me.

"As a politician you're not in it for yourself, you're in a position to help others. If I am not voted back in I can't be mad with the constituents, I can only be concerned with the level of representation that I did or did not provide."